Coming Attractions: Fall 2013 Television

New shows are in bold.  Each show is followed by when it starts and what channel, roughly what I know about it, and my expectations for it

• Sundays
• The Amazing Race
• Starts September 29th on CBS
• One of my two favorite reality competitions where teams race around the world trying to complete various challenges and reach their destination before the other teams
• Hopefully there won't be super annoying drama teams this year or if there are they get knocked out early (kind of a general hope for all reality competition shows)
• Once Upon A Time
• Starts September 29th on ABC
• Every fairy tale you've ever heard is true, just in another dimension and this is a story about those dimensions and characters colliding with our own
• I'm hoping there are more character reveals where the audience gets to try to figure them out during the episode
• Mondays
• Sleepy Hollow
• Starts September 16th on FOX
• Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman are in modern times
• I'm not entirely sure what to expect, but this will get the normal three episode judgement of a new show, looks like it could be entertaining
• How I Met Your Mother
• Starts September 23rd on CBS
• Final season where Ted will finally meet the mother
• There better not be any nonsense about Robin and Ted getting back together, that should've stopped after season 2 and yet it keeps reoccuring
• Tuesdays
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine
• Starts September 17th on FOX
• Not sure the premise is, looks like a funny show about cops
• The trailers for this were pretty funny, hopefully the trailers didn't show all the jokes
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Starts September 24th on ABC
• Joss Whedon.  Marvel.  Superheroes.
• Joss Whedon.  Marvel.  Superheroes.
• New Girl 
• Starts September 17th on FOX
• Zooey Deschanel being awkward and funny and a bunch of guys being funny
• Honestly, I was starting to lose interest in this show near the end of last season, so I hope it gets me hooked again somehow
• Wednesdays
• The Tomorrow People
• Starts October 9th on CW
• Superheroes.
• Superheroes.
• Survivor
• Starts September 18th on CBS
• My other favorite reality competition because the people design the actual game aspects (both the overall game and the challenges) are really good and I love to see what they add/change next
• Again, hoping there isn't a super drama contestant or if there is, they should at least be entertaining drama like Coach "The Dragon Slayer" Wade
• Arrow
• Starts October 9th on CW
• Modern day, mostly realistic Green Lantern TV show
• I was amazed by how much I like this show last year and hope they just continue being awesome!
• Thursdays
• The Crazy Ones
• Starts September 26th on CBS
• Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar in a comedy about something or other
• Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar are enough to sell me on just about anything
• Once Upon A Time in Wonderland
• Starts October 10th on ABC
• Once Upon A Time spin-off focused on the Wonderland dimension and Alice in the modern world
• I'm honestly not expecting to like this one as much as the original for a number of reasons, but I'm hoping to be wrong
• The Big Bang Theory
• Starts September 26th on CBS
• Seven characters getting more and more caricatured as their roles as nerds doing random stuff that is usually funny
• I'm constantly going back and forth about how I feel about this show.  Some weeks it's hilarious.  Other weeks they take something geeky and portray it as inaccurately as possible in order to get cheap laughs and I get mad.  Other weeks Leonard is just completely incompetent at even the most basic common sense thing when it comes to interacting with Penny and it makes no sense.

Review: Capture

Another interesting summer reality competition that debuted this year is the show, Capture.  Dressed up to be Hunger Games the TV show, but ending up more like the Syfy show, Cha$e, Capture is all about one team hunting down other teams in a large woodland area and tagging them with fancy devices called Talons.  Each episode, a team will be randomly selected to be the Hunt team and the rest will be the Prey.  The Hunt team has two 4 hour hunts in which they can capture a maximum of two teams.  If the Hunt doesn't catch any teams, they are automatically eliminated.  If they catch two teams, the remaining teams vote to eliminate one of the captured teams.  If the Hunt team only captures one team, then the captured team and the Hunt team are up for elimination.

During the hunt, there may be Sabotage events, Supply Stations opened, or Looking Glasses that are usable.  Sabotages task players with getting to a certain point to make another team have alarms blasting out of their vests or the Hunt team gets a compass pointer to them or some other bad targeted event.  Supply Stations contain some dinner of some sort, supplies received when they go back to camp after a hunt, and are also a large safe zone where the Hunt team cannot enter (at least while the station is open).  Looking Glasses let a Prey team see where all other teams are (including the Hunt team), but also let the Hunt team know that a Looking Glass was used.  After a Hunt is over, captured teams spend the night in cell, the Hunt team spends the night in a very fancy area with a luxury dinner, and the rest of the teams sleep on metal cots with rice and beans for dinner.

As the game goes on, all teams get more and more tired and alliances are made between Hunt and Prey teams.  There is a little bit of strategy to the game between the voting, who the Hunt team tries to capture (although, mostly they just wander around and capture whoever they can), and who gets sabotaged.  It should also be noted that within the first or second episode, someone already had said, "We didn't come here to make friends."  Is that a requirement of reality competition shows now?  Is it in a contract somewhere that someone has to say that?  Anyway, it's a pretty entertaining show and it hasn't ended yet.  The sabotages have gotten more interesting game design-wise, so it does seem like there was some thought behind the show.  If it makes it to a second season (usually not likely for summer reality competition shows), I'll watch it again.

Games I Grew Up On: Gauntlet Legends

Gauntlet Legends was a game my friends and I would actually willingly replay over and over again just to get our characters to level 99.  Essentially a revamp of the original Gauntlet, there are still monster generators, characters with different strengths and weaknesses, and magic potions and health items.  But this game adds a 3D look, bosses, hidden collectibles, and the ability to level up your characters to make them even better.  What I remember finding awesome is that you could actually see a visual difference between low level characters and high level characters, so it actually felt really satisfying to level up since you could see the difference.

Alongside the main four characters (Archer, Warrior, Valkyrie, and Wizard), players could unlock other characters like the Minotaur, Tigress, Jackal, Falconess, and the Sumner.  It was a pretty mindless hack and slash game overall (except for trying to find the collectibles), but I think that may be a good thing with four players cooperating.  A lot of times cooperative games that require actual thought (other than fight to fight strategy and communication) usually have one or two players strategizing and everyone else just doing what they're told or everyone starts fighting.  The game also had a sequel called Gauntlet Dark Legacy.  It pretty much just added more characters, but was otherwise the same game.

Review: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Unlike the Paper Mario series, the Mario & Luigi series seems to still be trying to follow Super Mario RPG in its gameplay and concepts.  The latest in the series is Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and is not only focused more heavily on Luigi, which is always awesome, but doesn't portray him as a weak coward like the previous Mario & Luigi and Luigi's Mansions games always portray him.  He's actually got quite a bit of courage this time around.  I also really appreciated the fact that Bowser ended up being the main bad guy and he and his minions were more competent than they have been in past Mario games.

This is a fairly long game.  Even though, I try to do everything in a game, I've always been fairly speedy at beating games and this took me a little less than 50 hours to beat.  There's quite a lot to do and nearly all of it is quite enjoyable.  Just like in Super Mario RPG, combat is a turn based system where correctly timed button presses can deal extra damage or avoid damage.  Unlike Super Mario RPG, it's possible to completely avoid taking damage from enemy attacks and in most cases counterattack the enemy and deal damage to them instead during their attacks.  The big difference between this game and other Mario & Luigi games is entering the Dream World through Luigi's dreams.  In the overworld, Mario and Luigi are separate characters, Mario controlled with A and Luigi with B.  In the Dream World, Dreamy Luigi combines with Mario to form one more powerful character.  This is good since the enemies in the Dream World come in hordes of 10-20 at a time.  It was actually pretty fun to have a mass of slightly weaker enemies to attack at once vs. the normal 3-5 enemies you normally face in these games.

Alongside the main quest, there are a plethora of side things to do.  You can look for and rescue all the Pi'illo people that have been trapped throughout the island, you can find all the beans hidden in the ground throughout the island, you can replay harder versions of boss fights to try to win some coins, you can take on the expert challenges (generally just getting Excellent on attacks and avoiding all damage from enemies), and you can challenge yourself to a high score mode for the special attacks (basically repeat a special attack endlessly until you kill enough enemies or screw up performing the special attack).  The item you get for completing all the expert challenges is well worth the time and effort it takes to get it, so I would recommend you try that, but the way the special attack challenges are done makes them not worth attempting.  Each challenge requires you to get over 800 points even though some attacks are much slower or more challenging, so getting that score will take you much longer and many failed attempts.  I personally did not find those fun in the slightest.  Really my only complaint about the game.

Along with a leveling system that has the same choice and risk of Super Mario RPG (you get to pick the stat you're boosting, but you have a spinner deciding what you get), the game also has equipment that not only boosts your stats, but also gives you some interesting benefits, like doubling your defense when you have low health, possibly stunning enemies, or giving you back your Bros. Points (basically magic points, mana points, energy, etc. for using special attacks) if you score Excellent on the attack.  By the end of the game I was just about invincible due to my combination of equipment.  However, I still had to be fairly good at learning the enemy attacks so I could dodge them.  So, I felt powerful, yet still challenged, which I think is how every good RPG should feel at the end.

So all in all, this is a quality game, very much worthy of following Super Mario RPG and trying to keep what that game did alive.  I do still miss the hidden coin blocks in the overworld, but I guess I can't have everything...

Games I Grew Up On: Super Mario RPG

Super Mario RPG is one of thee most memorable Super Nintendo experiences I had growing up.  Not only was it one of Square's numerous amazing RPGs of the era (I miss those days), but it was the first time that Bowser was a playable character.  It was also the rise of his occasional steps into being an antihero (usually only happens when someone else tries to take over the Mushroom Kingdom).

The basic premise of the game is Mario and crew trying to save the seven stars of Star Road that grant people's wishes from the evil Smithy and his gang.  On the way to victory, there are a ton of mini-games, hidden secrets, and an incredibly difficult optional boss.  While wandering around the world in an isometric view, Mario can jump around to climb platforms, hit ? blocks, and jump on enemies.  Whenever Mario makes contact with an enemy, the characters enter a turn based battle like most JRPGs of the time.  The difference (and the greatest thing this game added to the turn based RPG genre) was the ability to deal extra damage during attacks or dodge/lessen damage from incoming attacks with properly timed button presses.  For example, pushing A right before landing a Jump on an enemy will make Mario jump an extra time (and with certain special jump attacks, you can keep doing this until you mistime the button press).  This means that not only does the combat have strategy in it (the real purpose behind good turn based combat systems), but it also requires some dexterity to be fully effective.

This RPG spawned the Paper Mario series and the Mario & Luigi handheld RPG series.  The Mario & Luigi series seems to be able to hold its own, but the Paper Mario series seems to be declining in quality, but all of them have been lacking some of the magic of the original.  I'm not sure what exactly it is, probably the same magic that Square has lost since then.  Or it could just be nostalgia won't let me like anything as much as the original...

Review: Tomb Raider

It's been awhile since I was so incredibly surprised and pleased by just how good a game is.  I had heard good things about Tomb Raider before trying it, but I wasn't expecting it to get just about every game mechanic it had so very right.  The game has sneaking, shooting (if you fail sneaking), melee combat (if you fail shooting), item collection, exploration, upgrade-able skills, movie-level cutscenes and action sequences, and more.  It even managed to have quicktime events that I almost enjoyed!

If you've played any Uncharted games, the story will be very familiar, a group of archaeologists are looking for some location of legend, find it, get more than they bargain for, fight another group of people and the supernatural goings-on to try to survive and get back home.  To be fair, I'm pretty sure Tomb Raider had this story format first (and Indiana Jones before that), but there are definitely some game and story elements in the game I recognize from Uncharted.  It should also be noted, this is my first Tomb Raider game I've ever played.

The game is fairly linear in nature, but each area has a lot of rewards for exploring.  The few times the game makes you backtrack to previous areas there have either been major changes to the environment that makes it feel new or you have new abilities/gear that lets you access new areas and new secrets.  In each area with collectibles, there are one or two treasure maps that reveal the location of the other collectibles in the area.  You can also unlock an ability that lets you mark hidden collectibles on your map when you see them in Survival Instinct (like Batman's Detective Vision and Assassin's Creed's Eagle Vision).  You can also unlock a skill that reveals the location of all the treasure maps.  This means that if you really must collect everything (like me), you have ways to ensure you don't miss a thing.  You'll have more than enough experience and scrap (to upgrade weapons) by the end of the game to have everything fully upgraded, so you aren't forced to play through the game multiple times to collect everything.  The combat always made me feel powerful, but still required me to pay attention and be strategic about how I took out the enemies.  It's also the first game where I felt like using the bow was the most fun (I only used the shotgun in one fight and used the bow the rest of the game).  All in all, if you enjoy a game with collectibles, upgrades, and a movie feel to it (so your spouse/friends can still be entertained watching you play) then I can't recommend this game enough.

Games I Grew Up On: Xenophobe

One of the "cooperative" games I liked to play with my brothers growing up was the NES game, Xenophobe.  Since this was a game based on an arcade game, it's more about a high score and seeing how long you can play than winning.  In fact, I don't even know if this game had an end.  If it did, it was a little too repetitive and long for me to ever find it.

In the game, the players are tasked with trying to find these strange glowing orbs (dropped by killed enemies just like everything else in the game) before the space station you're on blows up.  I think if it did blow up, you still teleport off it safely, you just get less points.  So each space station is made up of a randomly generated set of rooms, which each contain some pre-determined aliens/barriers/teleport switches and also have constantly respawning enemies.  You kill enemies to get items, most just give you points, some give you health, some give you better weapons/grenades, and the glowing orb things end the level.  If you kill too many enemies in one room, they stop dropping items when killing them, so you're encouraged to keep wandering around.  While playing co-op, you can see the other player if you're both in the same room and if either player finds the orb, both players get warped out of the level (which definitely caused much strife for one of us not waiting for the other to get that awesome item that just dropped before forcing them to leave the level).

The enemies range from little amoebas that jump from the ceiling to the floor, floating laser turrets, little bitey leech guys, big jumpy Xenomorph looking aliens (like on the game cover seen above) that spit acid and basically just charge you a lot, and winged blue giraffe looking things that hang on the ceiling and drop bombs on you.  If anything touches you, you get hurt.  If you lose all your health, you lose.  It's as simple as that.  It was definitely a lot of fun at the time, but there's no way this would hold up now.  This is especially disappointing since the arcade game it's based off of sounds way more designed and fleshed out.  I guess that's probably just due to the technical limitations of the NES.  Either that or it was a cash grab...

Movies I Grew Up On: Batman

This movie is a strange, but fond Christmas memory of mine.  I remember my family had went up to Canada to visit my grandparents and other family on my dad's side and someone got the VHS of Batman, so we watched that together.  This was the first Batman movie in 23 years and decidedly darker than the so very awesome Adam West Batman.  Unlike the even darker and more "realistic" Christopher Nolan, Tim Burton still embraced the comic book source material and kept the characters fairly faithful (e.g. Joker wasn't just a crazy killer, but wanted everyone to die laughing/smiling).  It stars Michael Keaton as Batman, who in my mind is the best Batman, but not a fantastic Bruce Wayne.  It's also the the only Batman movie to only have a single villain (which really should be the norm for comic book movies, not the exception).

If you haven't seen it, this movie serves as both an origin for Batman and the Joker.  Jack Napier, second in command to Gotham's current crime lord, is set up to take a fall during a crime at the Axis Chemical factory.  While trying to stop the criminals, Jack falls into a vat of chemicals, partly due to Batman.  Instead of dying from the chemicals, Jack Napier is instead transformed into a deranged killer who uses chemicals in every day hygiene products to cause people to laugh to death.  Things escalate to a very climactic fight up at the top of a cathedral bell tower.

Unfortunately, this movie starts the trend of comic book movie villains dying in their first (and only) movie appearance.  I'm not talking about random villains created specifically for that movie (like the Superman movies), but one of the villains from the hero's gallery of villains.  I've never quite understood this since not only do the heroes only have a small number of villains that could actually hold up a movie by themselves, but usually the villains they do kill (like The Joker) have so many more stories that could be explored and character depth that could be done.  This can only lead to more future reboots that (for some reason) must retell the hero's origin story again and again.

Games I Grew Up On: Gargoyle's Quest

It's strange that Firebrand (the gargoyle pictured on the box) is green since the game, Gargoyle's Quest, is all about becoming the Red Blaze.  Gargoyle's Quest was one of the early Gameboy games I played on that system and had quite a bit of depth to it, alongside some very punishingly difficult gameplay.  The difficulty isn't too surprising when you realize that Firebrand is actually one of the enemies from the Ghosts 'n Goblins game that was known for its difficulty and lack of mercy for the player.

In Gargoyle's Quest, players take on the role of Firebrand the Gargoyle in his quest to get more powerful and save the Ghoul Realm from King Breager and his army of Destroyers.  The game has two modes: an overhead map with potential random battle sequences and side scrolling levels to fight monsters and collect items.  Many items you collect improve Firebrand's abilities - they may let him shoot stronger fireballs, jump higher, fly longer, or extend his health to another hit or two.  Levels can be played multiple times or exited by reaching either end of it (just like in Legend of Zelda II).  Like Metroid games, you may have to replay a level after getting a new ability so you can reach new places.

I haven't played this game in ages, but I'm pretty sure it would be super frustrating since it's generally not clear where exactly you need to go (without those handy Nintendo Power maps/guides I had as a kid) and the random battles will inevitably get you killed since this game requires Mega Man level precision, you can only take a few hits before dying, and if I remember right, health recovery items and extra lives were hard to come by.  But there's something to be said about that type of difficulty since, when I did finally beat the game, the feeling of accomplishment can't be beat.

TV Shows I Grew Up On: The A-Team

One of my other favorite TV shows growing up was The A-Team.  The premise was fairly simple: a crack special forces team was framed for a crime they didn't commit and are wanted by the military police.  While they try to clear their name, they live as soldiers of fortune for anyone with a worthy cause (and usually some sort of payment).  Most episodes are them trying to help the little guy who is being overwhelmed by greedy corporations, landowners, rival companies, etc. and won't or can't stoop to the levels of the bad guys.  Because this show was made in the 80's, it's pretty darn black and white: there are clear good guys and clear bad guys with not many plot twists.  But honestly, that's part of what I love about it so much.  That and the fact that no matter how horrendous a car/helicopter/plane crash is, everyone gets out of it just slightly bruised and sore, even the bad guys.  Also, no one ever gets shot by all the ridiculous amount of gunfire that goes on unless it's an important part of the plot.

What made the show so wonderful was the four main characters: John "Hannibal" Smith (the brain who concocts all their wild schemes and love it when plans come together); Templeton "Faceman" Peck (the pretty boy con artist who could talk anyone out of everything the had and almost always got the girl in the end); Bosco "Bad Attitude" Baracus (the muscle and wheel man on the crew, who had a heart of gold if you weren't Murdock); H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (the pilot who is declared insane, but always makes you wonder if he truly is).  Most episodes focused on the four of them together, but occasionally there'd be an episode that focused specifically on one of them for character development.  Almost every episode also went the same way - starts off showing someone in trouble, who then goes on a long and seemingly ridiculous quest (or so we're told) to find the A-Team, the A-Team reveals themselves to the bad guys in a show of force, the bad guys push back harder, the A-Team starts welding/building/constructing as part of "the plan", the A-Team is successful after a large fight with at least one vehicle flipped over, everyone lives happily ever after (except the bad guys).

This ridiculous, over the top, and completely unrealistic action is precisely why I was afraid of a modern day movie version of The A-Team (since so many directors/writers nowadays need everything to be dark, gritty, and super realistic), but as it turns out, the people who made that movie got it and it was a wonderful homage to this glorious TV show.  If you have never seen this show, I would highly recommend it, but just like with MacGyver, don't expect to take anything even remotely seriously and don't expect any amazing plot twists or you'll be disappointed.

TV Shows I Grew Up On: MacGyver

One of my all-time favorite TV shows is MacGyver. For those of you who haven't seen the show (who should remedy that as soon as possible - let me know and I'll lend you the DVDs), the show is about this mulleted guy, MacGyver, who solves problems in creative ways.  For example, during a car chase, he realizes the brake line has been cut, so the person he's with takes the wheel, he gets on the hood of the car and uses a pen's spring and tube to fix the problem.  His fixes always have two things in common, they use whatever stuff he happens to find around him or bring with him (he's a live action point-and-click adventure game character!) and the solution is always very short term (usually just to escape the people chasing him or get out of the room he's been locked in).

In the first few seasons, MacGyver is a "problem solver" for the government.  Really, that's the job title he tells everyone.  So most episodes involve him going to different countries to try to stop some big conspiracy, save some third world country from itself, or do other Mission Impossible style hijinks.  Occasionally, his buddy, Jack, will get him into trouble with some new get rich quick scheme.  Sometimes, a world class assassin, Murdoc, will be either assigned to kill him or trying to get revenge for the last time he failed (these are always the best episodes!).  Eventually, MacGyver gets hired by the Phoenix Foundation, which is much more about saving the world through the environment, so he starts taking on the big, evil corporations.  By the end of the series, he's a huge environmentalist, health nut, hippie type character, which is especially funny because in the pilot he smokes some cigarettes to get past some lasers (of course) and there's no way the character at the end of the show would do that, so it's funny to see how much the character changed without any mention of these changes.  He's always represented as he always was how he currently appears.  So according to the end of the series MacGyver, he was always a health nut environmentalist.

Another funny change the show took is that the pilot clearly wanted to represent his clever solutions to things as more realistic and even very scientific.  He plugged up a leaking vat of sulfuric acid with a chocolate bar he had with him and while he was doing this, he was explaining the science behind why chocolate could be used this way.  As the show went on, the solutions and escapades became more and more ridiculous, from being transported back in time to King Arthur's days and basically having a Yankee in King Arthur's Court episode or to using a giant punch board computer from Atlantis (which was really just a giant tumbler lock and not a computer at all).  But it's still a great show, as long as you never ever take one minute of it seriously.

Review: Despicable Me 2

The world needs more minions.  Fortunately, Despicable Me 2 has them all over the place.  Admittedly, the movie is mostly about Gru and his quest to discover the identity of another villain threatening to destroy the world and stop them.  However, the movie does a great job of alternating between silly scenes involving the Minions, scenes that move the plot along, and scenes filled with zany supervillain antics.  The three girls that the plot revolved around the first Despicable Me are no longer the focus.

As well as trying to find and stop the mysterious other supervillain, Gru has to deal with both a neighbor and his daughters trying to set him up with single women, and trying to stop his eldest daughter, Margo, from seeing a boy.  It is a kid's movie, so the actual plot is fairly predictable, but the humor in the movie is top notch.  Even the obligatory fart joke is funny (someone gets a 21 fart-gun salute at one point).  But by far, the end of the movie is, in my opinion, the best movie ending ever.  I haven't laughed that hard and that long in a long, long time.  Because of this, I'm not too surprised that there's going to be a movie focused solely on The Minions.  I am curious how the dialogue in that movie is going to work, though...

Games I Grew Up On: Secret of Evermore

A sequel to Secret of Mana in name and gameplay only, Secret of Evermore was a much more bizarre, but much more unique action RPG I played growing up.  The game starts in Podunk, USA in 1995.  A kid chases after his dog (who is chasing after a cat) and ends up in an abandoned mansion.  Inside, they find a large and strange machine.  The dog starts chewing on some wires, which causes the machinery to activate and send the pair into a strange space station where they are attacked by robots until they get in an escape pod that launches them down to the planet below.  The area they land in looks a lot more prehistoric than the space station they were just on (including some raptors!) and the boy's dog has suddenly changed into a large wolf-beast.  Thus begins their odd adventure to get back home.

Secret of Evermore was awesome mostly due to the incredibly varied settings (you go from prehistoric, through an Ancient Greece/Egypt like area, to a Medieval-era area, back to sci-fi) that each change the dog, the currency, and the enemies.  The game functions very similarly to Secret of Mana (only single player), but instead of magic, there is alchemy.  You must find the right components to use your abilities now, but they level up with use, just like in Secret of Mana, so there's even more grinding (which I found enjoyable as a kid, not sure if I could handle it now).  There is also a marketplace where I specifically remember having to trade the right items to the right shopkeepers in the right order to get very awesome and rare items.  Figuring out that pattern was pretty fun (I think later I had help from Nintendo Power).  I remember the bosses being pretty darn awesome, too (especially the one seen on the cover).  Though the music wasn't as good as Secret of Mana or Chrono Trigger, it was still pretty awesome, as well.  What I didn't know until today is just how bizarre and creepy the commercial for the game was.  I'm pretty sure the dog never threw up the other versions of itself like in that commercial...

Games I Grew Up On: Secret of Mana

One of my favorite cooperative games growing up was Secret of Mana.  You and two of your friends could run around an amazing fantasy world trying to save it from destruction.  One of you would be the warrior (the guy), one the healer (the tall blonde), and the other the mage (the short...boy?  girl?  I never figured that out).  Not only did your characters level up when you killed enough monsters, but you could specifically level up your weapons and magic by constantly using that particular weapon or school of magic throughout the game.  What this generally meant is that my friends and I would run back and forth between a few areas, killing endless monsters until we were max level, then we'd go follow the path to the boss, which would fall easily to our overwhelming power.

Unfortunately, we never beat the game.  Even back when I was a kid, it was hard to really get the same group of friends over consistently, so when we did pick it up, we'd forget where we were supposed to go (back then games didn't really have maps or objective markers/compasses or anything that I expect in games nowadays) and were constantly starting over.  Another problem was that the mage (my character) was pretty worthless against normal bad guys because MP (magic points) were limited, so I couldn't use spells that frequently, until a boss fight, at which point my friends really didn't get to play because I'd constantly be pausing the game trying to select spells to use.  I would cast my spells so fast that I generally broke the animation system and either the enemies would freeze for a little bit, I would, or just damage numbers would all be delayed and then all appear at once.  Hopefully, my friends don't resent my spell spamming that much (if they even remember it).

Despite that, this game is still in my top 5 games I've ever played because the setting and music are amazing and it really is a lot of fun to just run around with your friends killing baddies and leveling up.  Maybe some day when my friends and I are all retired, I'll try to get us all around the SNES and finally conquer this game.

Cartoons I Grew Up On: Superman The Animated Series

I'm not sure if I've said this before, but I didn't read many comics growing up.  The vast majority of my comic book knowledge comes from the cartoons in the 90's that I watched.  Most of these seem to be accurate enough portrayals of what happened in the comics that I can keep up with my comic geek friends fairly well.  One of those cartoons in a series of excellent cartoons was Superman The Animated Series.

This series was made by the same people who created the absolutely amazing Batman The Animated Series.  Unfortunately, the art style changed to be even less realistic (women with no waist, men with giant shoulders, etc.) than the Batman series first three seasons.  But they still tried to make Superman and his abilities more realistic.  The show also made other characters important and capable besides Superman.  This show is why I have such a respect for Dr. Hamilton from S.T.A.R. Labs.  This show and the aforementioned Batman cartoon built the basis for a world where the Justice League made sense (which is another amazing show, by the way).  This show is also the first time I've seen the most creative and artistic Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner.

I think it's really due to these three series of cartoons that I even care a little about DC characters.  They managed to give the characters a lot more depth than they had (in my mind) before that and had some very interesting plot twists here and there (more so in the Justice League series than the other two).  But my absolutely favorite moment of the series is when Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent meet.  Not because of any fanboy gushing or anything, but solely because for some reason the artists always drew Bruce Wayne's eyes as irises with no pupils and Clark Kent's eyes as pupils with no irises.  I don't know why that cracks me up so much, but it does.

The Illusion of Danger

One of the lectures I went to for my first GDC was "Everything I Learned About Game Design, I Learned From Disneyland", by Scott Rogers.  It was filled with all sorts of wonderful ideas and lessons, but one of the ones that has really stuck with me was the illusion of danger.  A couple examples of this from Disneyland would be the "darts" in the Indiana Jones ride (before they lowered the air pressure) that actually felt like real darts or the splashes of water from the cannonballs in Pirates of the Caribbean.  Neither of these dangers are real and everyone knows this, but it still adds to the thrill of these rides.

This false sense of danger is even more important in video games to give a similar thrill to the players.  Uncharted seemingly does a great job of this because Nathan Drake is almost always seemingly just about to fall to his death or barely escape from a runaway train.  However, this sense of danger is only if the player keeps moving.  If you stand still on that pipe that will obviously break when you jump off of it, it will (usually) stay in place indefinitely until you move.  So the obvious solution to this would be to have the pipe actually break if you stay on it after say 5 seconds or so.  Another good example is if enemies in the background are shooting at you, they should all miss you unless you stand still for a little bit.  This will give the illusion that you have to skillfully dodge the enemy fire, but without having players frustrated trying to focus on both the foreground action and background action at the same time.

This sense of tension and imminent danger can sort of be mimicked in board games by having the game balanced such that the line between winning and losing is very fine.  If it's a cooperative game, then the ideal ending would be the players barely making it through the harrowing adventure or possibly losing someone on the way (bonus points if you can mimic the stereotypical blaze of glory or grand sacrifice seen in action movies).  If it's competitive, then making all players a threat to the current winner will keep that feeling of danger going.  This is definitely the aspect of the illusion of danger I'd like to work on some more in my future games.

Review: The DeathSpank Series

There are three different games in the DeathSpank series, but there are so identical to each other that there's not much point in reviewing them separately.  That sounds like a bad thing, but really, the games are so funny, the settings so bizarre and clever, and the gameplay is good enough that there's nothing wrong with that.  The series is created by game designer, Ron Gibert - famous co-creator of the Monkey Island series and also eventually The Cave.  Ron definitely has a certain style because the humor is consistently good in all of these games.

The games revolve around DeathSpank, a hero to the downtrodden, adorned with the Thong of Justice, his only objective is to vanquish evil.  Although, he tends to easily get swayed about who is evil and who isn't.  For example, he'll gladly help sentient Mind Barnacles (think Brain Slugs from Futurama) take over the local tribe population because they seem nice.  What could go wrong there?  Basically, the game is constantly poking fun at the typical adventure game trope that anyone who gives a hero a quest must be good.  In fact, that's what the game does mostly, use, take advantage, and make fun of all sorts of typical adventure game tropes.

Gameplay is simple enough, you can equip a weapon to each of the four face buttons, consumable items to the four directions of the control pad, select one of three aspects to improve upon leveling up, and talk to people to start or resolve quests.  You'll generally find equipment that matches your level as you go, so there's a constant feeling of progression.  Dying will merely teleport you to the nearest Outhouse (which also function as fast travel points).  Some quests involve some somewhat basic puzzles (a few riddles here and there, a few puzzles requiring finding, combining, and using items correctly).  The game also allows a second player to join DeathSpank as his companion (different companion depending on which game), but I didn't get to see how this affects the game.

If you like light-hearted, simple action RPGs with loads of dark humor, stupid chickens, orphans, and bacon, then this series is probably for you.  They are very well polished and there are definitely some very interesting twists and turns to more than just the story, but I don't want to say anymore lest I ruin things.  I would suggest at the very least to try the demo and if you find the gameplay enjoyable, go through the first for a mere $15.  You might find yourself hooked after that.

Review: Bioshock Infinite

This is mostly going to be a review of the game design elements of Bioshock Infinite since I dare not say anything about the story lest I say too much.  The vast majority of game play is the same as it was in the first two Bioshock games.  You have an array of guns to choose from to shoot your way through a vast array of enemies, you have essentially magic powers to help as well, you can rummage through desks, barrels, crates, and trash cans looking for money, ammo, delicious cake and pineapple and other foods to help you heal.  The game feels more linear than the other Bioshock games, but I think that's mostly because you can't revisit areas after they are finished in this one or because only one area had multiple paths to get to your destination.

There are four distinct differences they have made this time around: Elizabeth's resupply, tears, two weapon limits, and the skyline.  About a third of the way into the game, you'll be joined by Elizabeth, quite possibly the best AI companion I have ever played with.  She never annoyed me, she never made combat more difficult, and she restocks your ammo, health, and salts when you are low (the harder the difficulty, the less frequently she'll restock you).  This is both a total blessing when you find yourself overwhelmed, but it also makes the game significantly easier.  I found myself taking much larger risks and doing stupider things because I knew as long as I could get away and hide for a few seconds, Elizabeth would patch me up.  If you want some actually challenging combat, I would recommend you play on Hard for this game.

Another thing Elizabeth brings with her is the ability to open up tears between dimensions.  Essentially, there are pre-determined things you can bring into the world to help you in combat.  So when you enter a new area, you might see a potential medkit crate up ahead, a potential gun turret up above, and a potential freight hook to swing from.  All you have to do is point at it and tell Elizabeth to open the tear.  Only one tear can be opened at once, but this gives combats a very interesting set of strategic choices for how you want to do battle.  Masterfully controlling the battle field is an incredibly powerful tool to use against your enemies.  Perhaps you'll bring in an ally to distract the enemy or use that freight hook to get away when you start getting overwhelmed.

In previous Bioshock games (and most FPSes), you get an arsenal of weaponry that grows as the game progresses.  You'll get to switch to any weapon you've collected up to that point whenever you want.  In Bioshock Infinite, you have a two gun limit.  Those two guns can be any you find, but if you have the machine gun and the carbine rifle stumble upon a shotgun, you have to choose which one to leave behind.  Much like the tears, this makes combat much more about strategic choices and choosing the weapons that best suit your style.  Maybe you love to be in the middle of the action, so you take the shotgun, but you want a good backup weapon if the enemies are too far away, so you take the rifle.  Most weapons are available all over the place, so switching to a different set happens fairly frequently.

The last new element (and the first weapon you get in the game) is the Skyhook.  This little device lets you (very brutally) kill people who get up in your face and it also lets you latch on to skylines and the aforementioned freight hooks.  You can use these to escape battle or use them  as part of your battle strategy.  They don't appear in every combat area, but when they are there, it's pretty darn fun to leap out of the way of a mob of guys and then swoop down and knock one out by leaping at them.  Just keep in mind that most enemies have Skyhooks as well, so they can follow you if you are just trying to get away.  Of course, if you're like me, you'll use that knowledge to set up an ambush for when they follow you.

Even with all these changes, the game play of Bioshock Infinite feels very similar to the original two games.  You're still running from one area to another, dispatching troops of enemies to make your way from point A to point B so that you can achieve your goal.  And then right when you think you have achieved that goal, the story tosses you for a loop, which is really why you play a Bioshock game anyway...

Review: Mark of the Ninja

Before playing it, I had heard good things about Mark of the Ninja, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it exceeded even my initially high expectations.  The game starts out with you as a ninja waking up in the middle of an attack on your home base.  After saving your leader, he orders you to take revenge on the man responsible, so you take on the Mark of the Ninja using special ink that gives you special abilities, but will also drive you insane.

Gameplay itself involves sneaking around heavily fortified areas, using darkness and distractions as your tools to either bypass guards undetected or take them out.  Other guards will investigate and raise alarms when they see dead bodies, so you can either hide them or use them as bait to lure the other guards into a trap.  The representation of lit areas, enemy flashlights and fields of view, and sound rings make the sneaking aspect of the game crystal clear when you're safe and when you're not, which is exactly what is required for a good sneaking game.  The game also gives you plenty of ways to get through/past guards in most cases giving plenty of replayability to try different play styles.  You also unlock different outfits that enhance certain traits, but cause disadvantages (e.g. one suit is completely silent when running and lets you equip two distraction items, but you can't equip a sword, so you can't kill anyone) so even if you're not good at a certain play style, you can try with the different costumes.  It really does make it a very different game when you go through normally vs. going through not being able to kill anyone.

Once you complete the game, you unlock New Game+, which I was questioning the purpose of the entire time since you can select any previously beaten level to play at any time.  It turns out New Game+ really ups the difficulty.  You no longer see sound rings, your field of view is more realistic (you can't see everything that's behind the way you're facing), and there are more guards.  This gives even further playback to the game if you really want a challenge.  This game is now tied with Dishonored for my favorite stealth game ever.

Review: Darksiders 2

Following the events off the original Darksiders (or at least some of the events?  I'm still a little confused by this), Darksiders 2 has players take on the role of another horseman of the apocalypse, Death.  Death is on a mission to redeem his brother, War, by trying to resurrect Mankind.  Unfortunately, to fulfill this mission he has to follow a seemingly endless amount of people saying, "You should go here, but first help me!"  Also, my post about a lack of collectible maps and the downsides of random loot drops were caused by this game.

It seems very strange that the first game did a good job with reminding you where collectibles were so you know where to go once you have the right items and this one failed so miserably at it.  Also, the random loot drops made any special items you unlock through skill and hard work (like working through 25 waves of enemies in The Crucible or fighting a super hard optional boss) were really worthless, thus making it feel like a crappy accomplishment.  This was only slightly mitigated by having Possessed weapons (that would randomly drop...) that you can "feed" other weapons to make them stronger.  So you can craft an uber weapon to fit your play style.  Of course, once you do that, you have little reason to care about any further weapon drops because they can't top your weapon.

Yet despite all the incredible gameplay failings this game had, I still want a Darksiders 3 to come out (which will prove difficult since THQ is no more...) because the art, character design, and universe they have built is still phenomenal.  I want to play a third game as Strife (although I hope it doesn't become a console FPS since they've made him use guns as his weapons) and a fourth as whatever they've named the fourth Horseman (the only female of the group).  I just hope that if someone gets the IP and they make another one, that it has more enjoyable gameplay.